USS Albatross was a screw steamer rigged as a three-masted schooner acquired by the Union Navy during the beginning of the American Civil War.

Following a week's service in the Chesapeake Bay along its eastern shore and off the mouth of the Rappahannock River, the steamer rounded Cape Henry on 10 July and proceeded south to waters outside the bar off Hatteras Inlet to assist in sealing off the North Carolina coast.

Albatross made her first capture on 18 July, when a party from the steamer boarded and seized the schooner Velasco of Galveston, Texas, which was carrying false papers while sailing under the Lone Star flag from Matanzas, Cuba, with a cargo of sugar.

The next day, while returning to her station, Albatross exchanged fire with the North Carolina steamer Beaufort lying off Bodie Island and forced the Southern ship to retire through Oregon Inlet to safety in Pamlico Sound.

On 22 July 1861, while Albatross was chasing a sailing vessel near Hatteras Inlet, a black man jumped overboard and shouted, "Save me, captain, she's bound to Charleston."

He placed Master's Mate Tunis D. Wendell in charge of the prize over a crew consisting of five Union sailors and the rescued man who had been on Enchantress when she surrendered to the Southern privateer.

After completion of the machinery work late in the month, the steamer returned to Hampton Roads on the evening of 31 August and began cruising in Chesapeake Bay where she took the schooner Alabama off the mouth of the Potomac River on 14 September.

The highlight of this stint of service off Beaufort was her discovery and destruction of the grounded 800-ton British ship York of Dublin, Ireland, near Bogue Inlet on 16 January 1862.

She stood out to sea on the evening of 7 August and, after reporting to Rear Admiral David Farragut, was stationed off the mouth of the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas.

Nevertheless, the admiral reprimanded French for leaving his station before his ship had been properly relieved and, on 29 October, sent him north in USS Rhode Island with orders to report to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles.

Ever since the previous spring, when his thrusts upriver had been nullified by a lack of ground forces, Farragut had been awaiting army support for clearing the Mississippi.

While the flagship and her consort were passing the lower batteries, the current nearly swung the pair around and grounded them; "but," Farragut reported, "backing the Albatross, and going ahead strong on this ship, we at length headed her up the river."

"The turning point (in the river) was gained," Commander James Alden, Jr. reported, "but I soon found, even with the aid of the Genesee, which vessel was lashed alongside, that we could make no headway against the strong current of the river, and suffering much from a galling cross fire of the enemy's batteries, I was compelled though most reluctantly, to turn back, and by the aid of the Genesee soon anchored out of the range of their guns."

Next in line, Monongahela ran hard aground under Port Hudson's lower batteries where she remained for nearly half an hour, taking severe punishment.

Meanwhile, on board Mississippi, Captain Melancton Smith saw Richmond coming downstream but, because of the heavy smoke of the battle, was unable to sight Monongahela.

Albatross' only casualty in the action was Charles Raick, the captain's steward, who according to the ship's deck log, "... was killed while nobly fighting his gun.

After reaching comparative safety beyond the range of Port Hudson's guns, the two Union warships operated in the stretch of the Mississippi between that Southern fortress and Vicksburg until both of these Confederate riverbank strongholds had fallen almost four months later.

While plying these waters which bristled with hostile batteries, they denied the Southern armies fighting in the East the steady flow of men, food, horses, and miscellaneous supplies which had supported Confederate troops since the onset of the conflict.

On 4 May 1863, she attacked the Confederate Fort De Russy and engaged two Confederate steamers moored to the earthworks, CSS Grand Duke and Mary T. In the engagement, Grand Duke was set on fire five times and suffered seven wounded, while Albatross was badly shot up and suffered heavy casualties when a 32-pounder ball came through the wheelhouse carrying the wheel away and causing the relieving tackles to be manned by men in plain view of the enemy.

[4] Following the surrender of Port Hudson on 9 July, Albatross dropped down river and briefly operated on patrol out of New Orleans before beginning a repair period which lasted until mid-September when the ship joined the blockading forces off Mobile Bay.

Proceeding "with the aid of sails and what small amount of steam we could make without a pipe," the ship managed to reach the Delaware River breakwater and entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs.